Ft. Hood thief gets 18 months jail, 2 years probation for $2.1M theft

| August 8, 2022

Jessica Smith pleaded guilty and was sentenced for the June 2021 theft of $2.1M worth of scopes, night vision devices etc. from locked Conexes on Ft. Hood. Her two alleged partners in crime were also arrested.

Jessica Elaintrell Smith, 30, had already pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government in April. As part of the plea deal, another count on the indictment was dropped.

Smith, along with co-conspirators Nathan Nichols and Brandon Dominic Brown, are accused of taking 68 PAS-13 scopes, 47 RT 1523 radios, nine AN-PSC 5 radios, four PVS-14 scopes, three-night vision devices, three AN/PRC 117 radios, two receiver/transmitters and one AN-VRC-90 radio sometime overnight between June 16-17, 2021.

Soldiers reported finding locks cut on 17 Conex shipping containers on the base, and an audit showed that a total of 137 items worth about $2.1 million were missing.

Homeland Security was granted a search warrant for Nichol’s home in July 2021. Investigators found $1.23 million in cash and stolen gear, as well as a phone with conversations between Smith and Nichols dating back to March of that year, according to court documents. Brown said he had access to the base.

Brown, also an Army veteran, pleaded not guilty on Nov. 29, 2021. His case is set for jury trial in September.

Nichols, however, pleaded guilty last year and is expected to be sentenced in October.

Fox

This ain’t her first rodeo. Obviously she is a slow learner.

Smith had pleaded guilty in June 2014 to theft in Bell County while she was stationed at Fort Hood and was sentenced to 10 years of probation, according to Stars and Stripes.

She was deployed to Afghanistan that same month and returned by November of that year. Bell County prosecutors reopened her theft case in 2020 when she was charged with felony family assault, violating her probation terms.

Category: Army, Crime, Dick Stepping, None

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My, My, My

Is being on probation for theft considered a PT profile as well?
Asking for a friend.

ninja

Hmmmmm…..🤔

“During a remote hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Jessica Elaintrell Smith, 30, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton to 18 months in prison, followed by two years of probation. Tipton ordered that Smith pay nearly $1.3 million as restitution to the U.S. Army. While in prison, she will have to pay $25 per quarter, and then $250 a month once she is released. At a rate of $250 per month, it would take more than 400 years to pay off nearly $1.3 million.”

“She also will have to pay the U.S. $100 as a “special assessment.”

“Army Vet Sentenced To 18 Months, Must Pay $1.3M, For Stealing Fort Hood Military Gear”

https://kdhnews.com/news/crime/army-vet-sentenced-to-18-months-must-pay-1-3m-for-stealing-fort-hood-military/article_c8723848-12ac-11ed-a608-bfc6df0e6d0f.html

ninja

“Her Co-Defendant. Nathan Nichols, who has pleaded guilty and is set to be sentenced in October, also will contribute to paying the restitution amount, Tipton said.”

SFC D

Maybe she can apply for debt relief under the federal student loan forgiveness program.

Skivvy Stacker

Ah, hell; that’s almost as bad as paying off a student loan.

ninja

Reference Jessica Elaintrell Smith.

So…Where is the Father? Or Fathers? *sarc*

Not enough child support?

Perhaps she could not get a job to financially support her two children?

“She got financially desperate because she had two children that she was trying to provide for,” said Lila Michelle Garza with the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Corpus Christi. “She knows she made a mess of things and put her family in even worse straits. She’s trying to make up for the mistakes she made by assisting the government. She’s cooperated from the very beginning.”

https://kdhnews.com/news/crime/army-vet-sentenced-to-18-months-must-pay-1-3m-for-stealing-fort-hood-military/article_c8723848-12ac-11ed-a608-bfc6df0e6d0f.html

USMC Steve

Yeah, the second she got caught she started cooperating. Before that she was just a thief.

ninja

https://kdhnews.com/military/army-vet-changes-plea-to-guilty-in-connection-to-2-1-million-fort-hood-military/article_72f4d66c-b5c5-11ec-8d82-afdbbad7eea6.html

Someone asked this question on the link:

“I must be missing something…POS Smith pleads guilty to agg rob in 2014 but still has access to facilities/job on the base in 2021??”

Someone replied with this answer:

“I said the same thing I was working with her with a company called DA Defense logistics and they do a background check but they let you start work without the background coming back first, then on top of that when she wasn’t able to get her CAC the company still kept her around knowingly that she didn’t pass the background nor CAC screening just as long as she was able to get on base to work that is all that mattered to the company and the sad part about all of this is ft. Hood still have the company on base working present.”

Wonder if they meant this Company:

http://www.defenselogisticshq.com/

5JC

She was convicted robbery in 2014, yet somehow remained in service. That makes no sense. As a convicted felon she could no longer carry a firearm.

Green Thumb

My guess is All-Points Logistics.

ninja

5JC:

Check out this April 2022 Stars and Stripes article about Jessica Elaintrll Smith’s time in the US Army.

She would never had lasted under the leadership of our TAH Supply Dad, AKA Claw:

“Smith, who worked as a unit supply specialist for the Army, was first convicted of theft in June 2014, according to Bell County court records. She was sentenced to 10 years of probation.”

“The Army deployed Smith to Afghanistan the same month and she returned in November 2014, according to her service record. She served six years, leaving the Army in 2016 as a specialist. During that time, she earned multiple awards, including the Army Good Conduct Medal and two Army Commendation Medals.”

https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2022-04-07/fort-hood-army-veterans-theft-equipment-5612255.html

Old tanker

The question I have is why when they had a conviction in 2014, did they not can her ass out of the service then with a BCD?

5JC

I am guessing it was too much work. Most of the time with a felony conviction the soldier is incarcerated for enough time to be DFR’d. If the soldier reported for duty the next day the commander would have to boot her. Lazy ass commander probably didn’t do anything.

Roh-Dog

Who the F0CK stores sensitive items in a conex?!! And why isn’t her sentence that one where they chain a crim to a rock, fillet them open and let buzzards eat the entrails?

Anyone that’s been on lockdown for missing sensitive items, and done the search everywhere and anywhere, knows my question be valid as fk.

I had a Squad Leader come to my house to ‘look’ for a set of AN/PVS-14s. When I opened the door, he asked to come in, stuck just his head in, inquired “what is in there?” and before I could see the direction he was asking over he’d already turned around and stated “have a good day” as he walked to his car. SSG ‘Troy’ din’t take no shit.

Green Thumb

Surprised that ball-licker SMA Grinston has not chimed in.

Roh-Dog

GEN(derbender) Milley is working on an Army-wide mandatory interpretive dance routine to apologize for the systemic conditions that led to her poor decisions.

KoB

Not only a thief, but a dumbass too. “Yeah, let’s go steal a coupla mil worth of stuff that you can’t just buy at a flea market/yard sale/swap meet/mil surplus, put it on E-Bay to sell, keep the $ and unsold goods in the house.” And who bought the stuff? NVG would be a nice item for any good ol’ boy, but who needs a high speed low drag comsec radio? Not only will the taxpayer never see the restitution from this we will be supporting her and her spawn. Disgusting.

Roh-Dog

And who bought the stuff? NVG would be a nice item for any good ol’ boy…

Sho’nuff! This is why I advocate and practice buying ONLY from reputable dealers (OpticsPlanet, TNVC, Kosher, etc).
The last thing I’d want to do, considering how small the market is, is risk buying something hot from an individual, on eBay or face-to-face.

Not worth the hassle, imho. Besides, warrantees are a good thing and only available via authorized dealers. IIRC TNVC has a ‘once a year’ check up thing where you send the unit to them and they’ll ‘once it over’*.

*this may have changed to applicable items only. see site for details.

Fyrfighter

“This ain’t her first rodeo. Obviously she is a slow learner.”
I’d argue against that David, seeing as how she consistently got away with shit that should have had her thrown out of the military, I’d say she learned very well that the race / gender card was a powerful asset to her criminal activities.. in this case, she just got a little too greedy.

Stand by for a pardon from the powers that be.

SFC D

We all know that a good Supply SGT has a bit of a larcenous heart, but holy shit this goes too far!

Berliner

She now has “Fisting Fridays” to look forward to. 😷 

Prior Service

It’s rare that a turdburgler burgles sensitive items but apparently this one has done so. Now to hammer her unmercifully with the hammer of justice.